Scripture Daily

Context No. 979 of 4322 · Malachi

Context · Reflection

Malachi 2:1-12: in context

1“Now, you priests, this commandment is for you. 2If you will not listen, and if you will not take it to heart, to give glory to my name,” says the LORD of Armies, “then I will send the curse on you, and I will curse your blessings. Indeed, I have cursed them already, because you do not take it to heart. 3Behold, I will rebuke your offspring, and will spread dung on your faces, even the dung of your feasts; and you will be taken away with it. 4You will know that I have sent this commandment to you, that my covenant may be with Levi,” says the LORD of Armies. 5“My covenant was with him of life and peace; and I gave them to him that he might be reverent toward me; and he was reverent toward me, and stood in awe of my name. 6The law of truth was in his mouth, and unrighteousness was not found in his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness, and turned many away from iniquity. 7For the priest’s lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth; for he is the messenger of the LORD of Armies. 8But you have turned away from the path. You have caused many to stumble in the law. You have corrupted the covenant of Levi,” says the LORD of Armies. 9“Therefore I have also made you contemptible and wicked before all the people, according to the way you have not kept my ways, but have had respect for persons in the law. 10Don’t we all have one father? Hasn’t one God created us? Why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother, profaning the covenant of our fathers? 11Judah has dealt treacherously, and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah has profaned the holiness of the LORD which he loves, and has married the daughter of a foreign god. 12The LORD will cut off the man who does this, him who wakes and him who answers, out of the tents of Jacob and him who offers an offering to the LORD of Armies.

Malachi turns to the priests with a hard word. If you will not take it to heart to honor my name, God says, I will curse your blessings, because you have already stopped taking it to heart. He recalls what the priesthood was meant to be, the covenant with Levi of life and peace: true instruction was in his mouth, he walked with God, and turned many from sin, because the lips of a priest should guard knowledge and people should seek the law from him. But you, God says, have turned aside, caused many to stumble, and shown partiality. Then a broader charge: do we not all have one Father? Why then do we deal treacherously with one another, and profane the covenant by faithlessness.

The heart of the rebuke is what a priest is for and how these priests betrayed it. A priest was meant to be a messenger, his lips guarding knowledge so that ordinary people could come and find God's truth from him, and by his own faithful life to turn many away from sin. That is a high calling, to be a reliable place people can go to learn the ways of God. And the tragedy is the reverse: instead of guarding knowledge these priests corrupted it, and instead of turning many from sin they caused many to stumble, leading people wrong by their partiality and faithlessness. There is a sober warning here for anyone who teaches or represents God to others, that spiritual leadership is not neutral; you either help people find the way or you help them stumble off it, and God holds the messenger accountable for which. The passage widens to everyone at the end, do we not all have one Father, but it falls first and hardest on those whose lips were supposed to keep knowledge.

In whatever way others look to me to understand God, am I guarding knowledge faithfully and turning people toward him, or by my inconsistency helping them stumble?

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